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Part I AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Basics |
Summary
In this chapter, you explored the various ways of opening a drawing. You learned the following:
Starting a new drawing based on a template
Customizing a template
Creating your own templates
Starting a new drawing with no template
Opening an existing drawing
Using an existing drawing as a prototype for a new drawing
Saving a drawing under a new name
In the next chapter, you read about using commands.
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Using Commands
AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT have been around for a long time. As a result, the way you give the program commands — called the
user interface — is somewhat unique. You can give the same command in several ways. In this chapter, you read about the various possibilities and start to get acquainted with all of them.
Commands are important. In a word processing program, you can simply start typing; in a spreadsheet program, you can begin by entering data, but nothing happens in AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT until you give it a command.
The AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT
Interface
Many new commands have been added to AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT over the years. Often, older commands that were no longer necessary were kept to maintain compatibility with earlier releases. A number of these older commands, as well as certain rarely used commands, are not found in the menus. Other than this idiosyncrasy, the menus are similar to those of other Windows programs.
Using menus
A menu item can do three things — execute a command, open a submenu, or open a dialog box. As in all Windows programs, the menu items provide clues to let you know what is going to occur after you click a menu item, as follows:
A right arrow opens a submenu with more options.
An ellipsis (. . .) opens a dialog box.
A plain menu item immediately executes a command.
Looking at the command line whenever you click a menu option is worthwhile. Any command that you choose on a menu is repeated on the command line, and a prompt or list of options may appear. If you have Dynamic Input on, the tooltip displays the prompt. See the section “Responding to commands” later in this chapter for more information on what to do next.
C 3H A P T E R
In This Chapter
Using menus, dialog boxes, toolbars, and tool palettes in the Windows interface
Working with Dynamic Input and the command line
Repeating and canceling commands
Undoing and redoing commands
Executing a command within another command
Executing two commands concurrently
Using the Help system
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Part I AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Basics |
The Screen Menu
In early releases, AutoCAD provided a menu on the right side of the screen, called the screen menu. If you’re still used to the screen menu, I suggest that you adjust to the new interface. You’ll find its consistency with other Windows programs to be an advantage.
If you must have the screen menu, you can easily display it. Choose Tools Options. Click the Display tab. In the Window Elements section, choose Display screen menu. Click OK.
AutoCAD’s current default is to not show the screen menu, so I don’t use it in this book. Therefore, the word menu always means the pull-down menu at the top of the AutoCAD screen. AutoCAD LT doesn’t offer a screen menu.
Using shortcut menus
Shortcut menus appear when you right-click your mouse. The purpose of shortcut menus is to speed up your work; they can be faster than using the command line because you don’t have to take your eyes off the screen. The shortcut menus try to anticipate the most common tasks you might want to complete. As a result, the menu that appears when you right-click depends on the situation:
If you have neither started a command nor selected any objects, you get the default menu when you right-click in the drawing area. Here you can cut, copy, paste, undo, pan, zoom, and so on.
If you’ve selected any objects, you see the edit-mode menu, which lists the most common editing commands.
If you’ve started a command, the command-mode menu opens, letting you choose an option for that command. I explain this in more detail later in this chapter.
When a dialog box is open, you can right-click active sections to see the dialog-mode menu, which varies with the dialog box.
Other menus include the toolbar list you get when you right-click a toolbar and the command-line history you see when you right-click the command line and choose Recent Commands.
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These menus are explained as appropriate throughout this book. You also have an opportu- |
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nity to use many of them in the exercises. |
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In earlier releases, right-clicking was equivalent to pressing Enter. You can customize how |
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right-clicking works — and that includes changing it back to the way it worked in earlier |
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releases. Choose Tools Options and choose the User Preferences tab. Then click the |
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Right-click Customization button. For more information, see Appendix A. |
Tip |
When you set right-click customization, you can turn on time-sensitive right-clicking. Time- |
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sensitive right-click is a great feature that gives you the best of two worlds — the right mouse |
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button can be used both as an equivalent to pressing Enter and to open the shortcut menus. |
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If you turn on time-sensitive right-clicking, a quick right-click is equivalent to pressing Enter |
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and will repeat the last command or end any commands that require Enter to end). A longer |
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right-click (hold your finger on the mouse button slightly longer) opens the shortcut menu. |
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You can specify the length of time required for the longer right-click, which is 250 millisec- |
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onds by default. |
Chapter 3 Using Commands |
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Using dialog boxes
Dialog boxes offer the user a simple way to control AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT without memorizing a lot of technical commands and option names. They guide you through a task by clearly laying out all the choices.
If you’re familiar with any other Windows program, you’re familiar with dialog boxes. As a brief example, look at the Hatch and Gradient dialog box (choose Hatch from the Draw toolbar), which enables you to specify how you fill enclosed areas. This dialog box has most of the common features of a dialog box and is shown in Figure 3-1. (I cover this dialog box in detail in Chapter 16.)
New |
By default, you can enter mathematical expressions for values in dialog box text boxes, starting |
Feature |
with an equal sign (=). For example, in the Angle text box in Figure 3-1, you can enter =20+10. |
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Press the End key to complete the process. You can also enter mathematical expressions in |
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palette text boxes. |
Drop-down list |
Button |
Tab |
Help on dialog box |
Option button |
Expand arrow |
Check box Text box |
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Figure 3-1: The Hatch and Gradient dialog box is typical of many AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT dialog boxes.
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Part I AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT Basics |
Tip |
If a dialog box has a question mark (?) icon in the top-right corner, click it to change the cur- |
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sor to a question mark. Then click any item in the dialog box to display a brief explanation of |
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that item. |
When you’ve finished using a dialog box, click OK to accept any settings you specified or click Cancel to discard any changes.
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Using toolbars |
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Toolbars provide a quick way to execute a command with one click of the mouse. On the other |
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hand, those little pictures on the toolbar buttons are not always self-explanatory. Until you get |
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used to the location of the buttons, you may find yourself wandering (with the mouse cursor) |
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from button to button, reading tooltips. However, once you are familiar with the location of fre- |
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quently used toolbar buttons, toolbars usually become a favorite way to execute commands. |
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Normally, you have the Standard, Styles, Layers, Properties, Draw, and Modify toolbars show- |
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ing. You can open other toolbars as you need them. |
Cross- |
You can customize toolbars to suit your needs. Toolbar customization is covered in Chapter 29. |
Reference |
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When you click a toolbar button, in order to complete the command, you usually need to look |
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at the Dynamic Input tooltip, or on the command line, to follow the prompts there. I explain |
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the command line and Dynamic Input later in this chapter. |
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A few of the toolbars have flyouts, attached toolbars containing additional buttons. For exam- |
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ple, on the Standard toolbar, the Zoom button has a tiny arrow on its lower-right corner. Click |
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and hold a second and the flyout flies out, revealing several other buttons, all related to zoom- |
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ing in and out. Drag down and choose any one of the options. |
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To display a toolbar, right-click any toolbar and choose the toolbar you want to display. |
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Displayed toolbars have a checkmark next to their name. To hide a toolbar, follow the same |
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procedure — choose the toolbar to deselect it. |
Tip |
To display the Express Tools toolbars (AutoCAD only), right-click outside any toolbar. For |
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example, you can right-click to the right side of the Properties toolbar or below the Draw tool- |
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bar. From the shortcut menu, choose EXPRESS and then the toolbar that you want to display. |
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As soon as a toolbar is open, you can close it by clicking the Close button at the upper-right |
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corner, as long as it is not docked — that is, parked at one edge of the screen. Toolbars can |
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float within the drawing area or even outside the application window (when it is not maxi- |
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mized). You can move them by dragging them and reshape them by dragging any edge. To |
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dock a floating toolbar, drag it by its title bar to any edge of the application window. Docked |
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toolbars have grab bars (which look like a double line) at one end; grab bars enable you to |
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easily undock and move the toolbars. |
Tip |
To prevent a toolbar from docking as you move it to the edge of the screen, press Ctrl as you |
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drag. To close all the toolbars and palettes, press Ctrl+0. You now have more space to draw. |
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To get back your toolbars and palettes, press Ctrl+0 again. |
Learning how to move, dock, display, and hide toolbars is worth your time. This small effort can greatly increase your comfort level as you draw.